Another day, another scandal.

While the supposed and much-ballyhooed “transparency” of this administration is about equal to the eyesight of Helen Keller six feet under the ground, the massive scandals and naked abuses emanating the Executive Branch are open for all to see that want to see them.

Of course, this does not apply to the State-Controlled Media in this country as all pretext of reporting and investigating has fallen totally and 100% on the alternative media, such as talk radio, the blogosphere and few brave souls in the OSM. So do not except to see Katie Couric and her colon mentioning this tonight, in between CBS ads for Halleys-MO and Metamucil.

(Above: Obamacorn portion of image by Leo Alberti).

And speaking of health issues, the official birth of ObamaCorps has been performed via stealth, interference and cronyism by (cough) “fashion guru” (cough), Michelle Obama. With some help by the GOP House and Senate members via the GIVE/SERVE Act.

As AP reports (Hat Tip – Michelle Malkin)

President Barack Obama plans to fire the inspector general who investigates AmeriCorps and other national service programs amid a controversy between the IG and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star.

The IG, Gerald Walpin, was criticized by the U.S. attorney in Sacramento for the way he handled an investigation of Johnson and his nonprofit group, St. HOPE Academy, which received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants from the Corporation for National Community Service. The corporation runs the AmeriCorps program.

On Thursday, Obama said in a letter to Congress that he had lost confidence in Walpin. Neither the president nor deputy White House press secretary Josh Earnest would give details. The president must give Congress 30 days’ notice before removing Walpin, who is being suspended with pay for the 30 days. Earnest said, “The president will appoint a replacement in whom he has full confidence as the corporation carries out its important mission.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, in a letter to Obama, pointed to a law requiring that Congress be given the reasons an IG is fired. He cited a Senate report saying the requirement is designed to ensure that inspectors general are not removed for political reasons. Grassley said Walpin had identified millions of dollars in AmeriCorps funds that were wasted or misspent and “it appears he has been doing a good job.”

Since Walpin was doing too good a job exposing the backdoor deals and taxpayer money laundering, he just had to go, as this story from the Youth Today site mentions:

The inspector general (IG) of the Corporation for National and Community Service is being removed by President Barack Obama, a week after the IG questioned the eligibility of the largest and most expensive AmeriCorps program, and while the IG was contesting the “propriety” of a settlement made with a mayor for alleged misuse of AmeriCorps funds.

…Funding for the largest AmeriCorps program – the Teaching Fellows Program, run by the Research Foundation of the City University of New York – is in abeyance pending resolution of widespread problems identified in a recent audit. Although Walpin recommended that funding be curtailed and that previous funds (perhaps as much as $75 million) be repaid to the corporation, the corporation has said it will take no action on that matter.

Walpin concluded that nothing was being gained by the grants to CUNY and that the money was simply being used to subsidize an existing and funded program.

As Michelle herself says:

I highly recommend that you head over to the Americorps’ inspector general’s report site here. You can find the entire CUNY report here. Let me repeat what the IG found: Waste, duplication, ineffective spending, criminal background check lapses, and repeated violations of the grant rules. And they’re not doing anything about it.

As for The Least Lady, her fingerprints look to be all over this:

First Lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, Jackie Norris, is being sent to the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) in what is both a White House shake-up and an indication of the first lady’s sway over the corporation that oversees AmeriCorps, Serve and Learn and the Senior Corps.

Observers believe Norris, whom Obama came to know early in the Iowa caucus campaign, was forced out of the White House so that long-time Obama friend Susan Sher could take over. But those same observers see her appointment as senior adviser to the corporation as an overall win for CNCS, believing that Norris still will have a straight line to the White House.

CNCS remains without a CEO after the withdrawal last month of Nike vice president Maria Eitel, even before her nomination went to the Senate. Although the corporation’s CEO must be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate, Michelle Obama reportedly has taken the lead in selecting the nominee.

The Washington Examiner has more: (Hat Tip – Hot Air)

The bigger question is why the president is doing this and why he is attempting to do it so quickly. Senate sources now believe Obama is firing Walpin over Walpin’s investigation of Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and a prominent supporter of the president.

Johnson, now the mayor of Sacramento, California, started a non-profit organization called St. Hope. The group’s mission, according to its website, is “to revitalize inner-city communities through public education, civic leadership, economic development and the arts.” As part of its work, St. Hope received a grant of about $850,000 from AmeriCorps.

Last year, Walpin began an investigation of how Johnson’s group spent the money. According to the Associated Press, “[Walpin] found that Johnson, a former all-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, had used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in school-board political activities, run personal errands for Johnson and even wash his car.” Walpin asked federal prosecutors to investigate. In April, the U.S. attorney in Sacramento, a Bush holdover, declined to file any criminal charges in the matter and also criticized Walpin’s investigation.

That might suggest that St. HOPE was OK, and it was Walpin who was in the wrong. But at the same time prosecutors decided not to file any charges against St. HOPE, the U.S. attorney’s office also entered into a settlement with St. HOPE in which the group also agreed to pay back about half of the $850,000 it had received from AmeriCorps.

In his letter to the president, Grassley defended Walpin’s performance. “There have been no negative findings against Mr. Walpin by the Integrity Committee of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), and he has identified millions of dollars in AmeriCorps funds either wasted outright or spent in violation of established guidelines,” Grassley wrote. “In other words, it appears he has been doing his job. ”

The bottom line is that the AmeriCorps IG accused a prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money. After an investigation, the prominent Obama supporter had to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. And Obama fired the AmeriCorps IG.

As Michelle mentioned, this has shades of Travelgate…

From The Examiner article:

Initially, the White House called Walpin and told him he had an hour to resign or get fired, as Byron York reported.

Best comment:

From Rogue Cheddar

Please! Please! Please! Can we have the Clintons back? I promise I’ll be good!

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More fallout from DealerGate.

From the Washington Post (Hat Tip – Stop the ACLU):

Since the 1970s, General Motors has led the way in providing opportunities for minorities to own car dealerships. The automaker pioneered special training programs and put money behind candidates for new dealerships.

Now, after almost four decades of slow but steady progress, minority dealers are increasingly worried that the latest wave of GM cuts could erode any gains. As part of its latest restructuring, GM yesterday said it planned to slash about 2,600, or 40 percent, of its 6,200 dealerships. GM currently has about 240 minority dealers.

GM officials have yet to list which dealers could face closure. GM spokeswoman Susan Garontakos said decisions will be based on individual dealer performance but said the company remains committed to expanding the number of minority-owned dealerships. The criteria include sales, customer satisfaction ratings, capitalization, profitability, location and the quality and size of the store. Minority dealers say those criteria could prove fatal for their operations.

More to the point is a black dealership owner in MI:

Others also expressed worry about GM’s criteria for keeping dealers.

“I’ve got two of the largest volume Chevrolet stores on either side of me,” said Mike Johnson, owner of Michael Chevrolet in New Baltimore, Mich. “In terms of raw numbers, we don’t compete with the larger, well-established white dealers. GM is going to be looking for the dealers who dominate their market territories.”

GM dealers see other bad signs. They point to GM’s decision to kill the Pontiac brand. Nearly a third of GM’s minority dealers sell Pontiacs, according to the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers.

The number of minority dealerships industry-wide has slipped to about 1,200 from a peak of 2,000 in 2002 and 2003, according to NAMAD. Johnson said he was particularly concerned about the staggering decline of black-owned dealerships at GM.

“In 1990, GM had over 100 African American dealers. Today we are down to 40,” he said. “We are absolutely certain that a large portion of us are going to get wiped out.”

So even as President, a man who sat 20 years in a Black Klan church, who used race in every possible way to drive wedges between communities, parties and candidates to get elected and continues to do so to this day, could very well end up screwing those minorities he vowed to “save and protect”. But why should that surprise anyone? Chicago thug politics are not known for their loyalty to anything but it’s practitioners.

Hope and change, anyone?

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And the stink from this rotten garbage of a “bailout” just keeps on growing.

Thanks to a lot of diligent and exhaustive work from the conservative blogosphere, it is becoming more and more clear everyday that there is a lot more of a political tinge showing up when it comes to those Chrysler dealerships that are being shuttered, stolen or just flat out bullied by this administration.

As if breaking federal contract law with secured bond holders, preventing the company from going through the normal channels of bankruptcy, handing over large percentages of the company by fiat to heavy-money union heads and operatives, while also waltzing into corporate offices and firing the CEO is not enough, now we have some naked graft showing itself in spades over this whole episode.

As detailed in the report snippets below, it now appears that there is a lot of favoritism going on behind the scenes when it comes to just whose car dealership’s ox will be gored and whose will not be.

From Red State:

Since Doug Ross reported that many of the dealers on the list of Chrysler outlets to be closed were donors mostly to Republicans, attention has now been focused on the list of dealerships which are slated to remain open. Some preliminary findings, as well as related news, have bombshell potential.

First of all, bear in mind that these early findings are only preliminary, and the entire list has not been researched. It’s a process which takes time, but several people are on the case. Joey Smith is one of them, and he’s set up a website where you can track his progress. Gateway Pundit has also been following the story here and here.

Joey’s first big find involves RLJ-McLarty-Landers, a company which operates six Chrysler dealerships in the South and lower Midwest. All six of the dealerships have been chosen to remain open. Most interesting about the partnership, however, are the partners. RLJ-McLarty-Landers is owned by Steve Landers, Thomas McLarty and Robert Johnson. Who are these guys?

Landers is a big-time, fourth-generation auto dealer. In addition to the six Chrysler dealerships, he has a number of other car franchises, including Ford and Toyota dealerships in Little Rock, and he also acquired the Harley Davidson dealership there.

Little Rock is Bill Clinton’s old stomping ground, and lo and behold, the Thomas MCLarty who is the second partner in the group is “Mack” McClarty, a long time Clinton associate who served the former president as chief of staff during their days in the White House.

The third partner in RLJ-Mclarty-Landers is Robert Johnson, who founded Black Entertainment Television and is a co-owner of the Charlotte Bobcats of the National Basketball Association.

The Astute Pundit found a very interesting story from Reuters that reports that Chrysler themselves did not approve of the closings:

From the story:

NEW YORK, May 26 (Reuters) – A lawyer for Chrysler dealers facing closure as part of the automaker’s bankruptcy reorganization said on Tuesday he believes Chrysler executives do not support a plan to eliminate a quarter of its retail outlets.

Lawyer Leonard Bellavia, of Bellavia Gentile & Associates, who represents some of the terminated dealers, said he deposed Chrysler President Jim Press on Tuesday and came away with the impression that Press did not support the plan.

“It became clear to us that Chrysler does not see the wisdom of terminating 25 percent of its dealers,” Bellavia said. “It really wasn’t Chrysler’s decision. They are under enormous pressure from the President’s automotive task force.”

He added the government task force, which he criticized for having no members with retail experience was, in effect, attacking U.S. entrepreneurs.

“What is the next task force? Shoe stores? Pizzerias?” Bellavia said at an event in Manhattan to publicize the dealers’ concerns ahead of a bankruptcy court hearing.

And later:

‘UNCONSTITUTIONAL’

“I think it’s unconstitutional,” said Jim Anderer, owner of Island Jeep in Lindenhurst, New York.

“The Fifth Amendment clearly states you cannot take another person’s property without due process or compensation. Even in eminent domain, there is an appraised price on the property
being taken by the state.”

Anderer said he has been in business for 22 years and employs 48 workers. He intends to fight the plan.

“My business is being stolen from me under the guise of the bankruptcy laws, given to another dealer down the street,” Anderer said.

Damn right it is unconstitutional. This is just like Mugabe seizing (mainly white) farms owned for generations by force and giving them to political and personal friends and relatives. The parallels are striking.

Doug Ross, who first blew the whistle on this case back on the 25th, has a followup, showing pretty clearly that a good number of these closings have been politically (and financially) motivated:

Dealers on the closing list donated millions to Republicans, $200 for Obama

The initial pass at the list of shuttered dealers showed they had donated, in the aggregate, millions to Republican candidates and PACs and a total of $200 to Barack Obama.

In fact, I have thus far found only a single Obama donor ($200 from Jeffrey Hunter of Waco, Texas) on the closing list.

Another review of all 789 closing dealerships, by WND, found $450,000 donated to GOP presidential candidates; $7,970 to Sen. Hillary Clinton; $2,200 to John Edwards and $450 to Barack Obama.

Now, and this is important, Chrysler claimed that its formula for determining whether a dealership should close or not included “sales volume, customer service scores, local market share and average household income in the immediate area.”

Dealer Jim Anderer told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto he can’t comprehend how his dealership can be among those killed: he stated that his sales volume ranking is in the top 2 percent of all dealers.

Furthermore, Anderer says explanations aren’t forthcoming. “They won’t tell us. They seem to be running for cover right now because they won’t give us a solid explanation. They come up with all these reasons, but none of them seem to make sense… This is insanity. The government is stealing my business. And they’re telling me there’s nothing I can do about it… There was no process that you could put your finger on and say, ‘Hey, we cut 25 percent of the lowest performing dealers.’ They didn’t do that. Nobody will give us a real clear explanation of the formula that they came up with.”

And Michelle Malkin reports this from BizJournals.com

U.S. Sens. Claire McCaskill and Kit Bond wrote a letter Friday to President Barack Obama’s auto task force seeking answers to concerns raised by Chrysler and General Motors dealerships in Missouri that learned last week their contracts will be terminated.

Auto dealers statewide have expressed frustration to McCaskill and Bond about the lack of information they have received from Chrysler and GM, saying they didn’t know the criteria used to make the contract termination decisions.

The two Missouri senators asked the task force for the criteria used to determine how many and which dealerships would be terminated, as well as the process for dealerships to appeal decisions.

“Many Missouri dealers are asking us why certain profitable dealers, costing the auto companies nothing, were selected for closure,” McCaskill, a Democrat, and Bond, a Republican, wrote to White House car czar Steve Rattner. “From this perspective it appears an arbitrary standard may have been used to make these decisions … these dealers deserve a little more than just a pink slip in the mail.”

Banks, mortgage houses and the auto industry. All now under the thumb of a few white-collared, politically-charged thugs. Mussolini would be damn envious of this kind of power.

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Well, it looks like That One Who Was Going To Make The Temperature Fall and Lower the Oceans has a little egg on his face when it comes to his Not-So-Midas Touch on things economic.

Caterpillar, who Obama back in Febraury was hailing as a prime example of a company that was going to benefit immediately (if not enormously) from the Porkulous Bill has just posted its 1st quarter numbers and they are about as dismal-looking as Perez Hilton wearing the latest Barney Frank creation.

Their first loss in 16 years. Good job, Obama.

Ironically enough, 16 years ago was when another young, Democrat president was just starting out and had also just signed a “stimulus” bill.

As reported in Bloomberg: (Hat-tip: Michelle Malkin)

April 21 (Bloomberg) — Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of bulldozers and excavators, posted its first quarterly net loss in 16 years and said full-year profit and sales will trail its previous forecast amid a global recession.

The first-quarter net loss of $112 million, or 19 cents a share, compares with net income of $922 million, or $1.45, a year earlier, the Peoria, Illinois-based company said in a statement today. Revenue dropped 22 percent to $9.23 billion.

“The sales decline is problematic given a relatively high fixed-cost base, which suggests weakness for some time,” said Joel Levington, director of corporate credit at New York-based Hyperion Brookfield Asset Management Inc.

Caterpillar predicted the U.S. recession in October 2007 and said today it expects the world economy to decline about 1.3 percent this year. Chief Executive Officer Jim Owens has cut more than 24,000 jobs since December and imposed shutdowns, partial workweeks and executive pay cuts to cope with the global credit crisis and longest U.S. slump in a quarter century.

The company’s shares rose at midday, after Owens said on a conference call that China’s stimulus spending may help later this year and set the stage for growth in 2010. Excluding some costs, profit was 39 cents a share, exceeding analysts’ average estimate of 5 cents a share in a Bloomberg survey.

As Yogi Berra said, “It’s deja vu all over again.”

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Well, it has been a few weeks since the Socialist Politburo (aka the Democrat party) had their last kangaroo court in session and with the mock “outrage” over the bonuses paid out to certain AIG employees, that means it must be time for another episode of:

STALINIST SHOW TRIAL…

And your host, Rep. Barney AIDS, (Homosexual Pimp & Racketeer – MA)

Michelle Malkin has been liveblogging this sham. Here are a few highlights.

11:41am. First q: Why not return the bonuses earlier?

Liddy: We “blindly follow[ed] legal advice.”

Q: Why wasn’t committee informed of retention bonus return plan? Why not make payments on Saturday night?

Liddy: No intent to deceive. We had been discussing this with Hill staff.

Q: But not my staff?…and not Treasury Secy.

Liddy: No. Not with Treasury. Only Federal Reserve.

Q: Are you aware of TARP funds about to run out?

Liddy: Well aware.

Liddy: I talked to Treas. Secy last week and he said the first he’d heard about [bonus issue] was a week ago.

12:00pm Eastern. Frank demands names of execs who didn’t return bonuses. Will subpoena them. Liddy wants confidentiality. Frank refuses.

Liddy reads death threats against execs and their families. Frank flippantly says everyone gets those threats.

The execs are NOT public figures.

Frank dismisses threats as not specific.

So, all of these AIG employees should have their names, addresses etc be leaked nationally and then have the DNC Media Joe-the-Plumber them. In other words, a media napalm enema. God, I hate these Marxist bastards. 2010 cannot come soon enough.

And speaking of that, if the RNC was really worth a damn, they would start a national House and Senate campaign, ala the Contract With America. Maybe name it 100 For the GOP, since the GOP has the chance to completely destroy the Dem majority in both houses, if they really put their mind to it.

Instead, of course, we have a bumbling fool who is more worried about Rush Limbaugh, political cartoons and affixing his lips to the donkey’s ass than about actually doing his job.

At least Code Pink got bashed a bit. Though it was more for show than anything else. Also, can anyone tell me what nursing home the Dems keep raiding, ala ICE to get these dried-up old Marxist prunes from?

And a little later:

12:19pm Eastern. Liddy: “There was great angst over bonuses during meetings with NY Federal Reserve.”

Ackerman: Will you cooperate with Cuomo’s subpoena of names of execs who didn’t return bonuses?

Liddy: We’ll do the right thing. Our intent is to comply with the subpoena.

Q: The NY Federal Reserve should be called to account. Congressman pushing receivership idea. Wants chart of future compensation plans. Wants all docs given to NYFed Reserve.

12:40pm Eastern. Democrat Rep. Capuano says he’s not against bonuses, just against bonuses for people who created the problem.

Well then, I’m sure he will return his automatic pay increases this year!

Indeed, and they also return all of those extra paper clips, postage stamps and girlie mag …errr Time/Newsweek subscriptions that litter their offices.

UPDATE:

From TheHill.com: (via Michelle Malkin)

House Financial Service Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) wants the names of AIG employees who refuse to return at least some of their bonuses, and lawmakers appear split on the request.

“I’m now asking you to send us the names of people receiving the bonuses who are not paying them back,” Frank told AIG Chairman and CEO Edward Liddy during a Wednesday hearing.

Frank said if he did not receive the names he would move to ask his committee to vote to subpoena the names.

Liddy said that he “very much” wants to comply with Frank’s request, but said he feared for the employees’ safety.

“I would hope it doesn’t take a subpoena,” he said. “I’m just really concerned about the safety of our people.”

Liddy read from one threat: “‘All of the people should be executed with piano wire around their neck,’” he said.

Some Senate Republicans sympathized with Liddy’s concerns about potentially exposing the executives to public harm.

“My gut reaction is that there’s so much rage, I don’t want any violence taking place,” said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). “I’ve got to be a little tempered in my response. But I do think they should either return the money or be fired.”

Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said public anger should be focused instead on the Treasury Department, which knew about the bonuses. “The administration could have easily dealt with this,” Corker said.

No sh*t, Sherlock. This is the biggest and most ridiculous setup and “outrage” since the Duke Lacrosse case. We should use some of that “stimulus” to build a 535-room federal prison on Christmas Island and have the DOJ conduct an ICE-like raid…now THAT would be money well spent.

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Breaking over at Breitbart.com.

A fired Fannie Mae employee has been charged with a plot to destroy all computer server data on all Fannie Mae.

From AP:

URBANA, Md. (AP) – The Justice Department says it foiled a plot by a fired Fannie Mae contract worker in Maryland to destroy all the data on the mortgage giant’s 4,000 computer servers nationwide.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 35-year-old Rajendrasinh Makwana, of Glen Allen, Va., is scheduled for arraignment Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore on one count of computer intrusion.

U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein says Makwana was fired Oct. 24.

More at the link above. (Hat tip to Square Nickel over at FC)

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Well, it probably was too good to last. After the courageous and surprisingly unanimous GOP “NO” vote on the Taxpayer Extortion Act, it looks like the Political Jock Itch has returned to it’s home base. That being more useless than Helen Thomas pitching ProActiv. The chamber of the U.S. Senate. (Hat Tip: Michelle Maklin)

You know, these “moderate” types are like the seaweed monsters in the movie, “Horror at Party Beach” who went on a panty raid/rampage during a girl’s slumber party. Like Mike and the Bots said, no matter what species a creature is, they will still have the urge to panty raid. Only in this case, it is this country’s wealth and the wealth of the next two generations that are being raided. Like a coke addict with a wallet-full of stolen money, they are sucking this country’s economy right up their Stalinist noses.

So, in predictable fashion, Sen. Ben Nelson, (D)-NE is trying conjure up support for a new “Gang of 14 (Jackasses)” in order to “rescue” the “unacceptable parts” of this train wreck of a bill.

From FOXNews:

Senate Republicans and some Democrats aren’t happy that the $819 billion economic stimulus bill that the House passed Wednesday contains billions of dollars for programs that arguably won’t spark much job growth.

As a result, one moderate Democrat is looking to bring some of his colleagues together, as was done in the past on the issues of judicial appointments and energy policy, to find some common ground on how the stimulus bill might be improved, Fox has learned.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., who famously gathered Republicans and Democrats in a so-called “Gang of 14″ to avert a shutdown of the Senate over judicial nominations, is aiming for similar bipartisanship in the stimulus debate. Nelson told FOX News he has invited a group to his office Friday to see if more can be done to create jobs in the stimulus bill — such as a major boost in funding for infrastructure projects, which appeal to many of his colleagues.

“We need to focus this on getting people back to work quickly,” Nelson said.

The “Gang of 14″ compromise in 2006 displeased many conservatives. Republicans controlled both houses of Congress at the time, and those involved in the compromise group agreed to take some of the party’s power options off the table in exchange for Democratic promises not to filibuster Bush’s judicial nominees except under “extreme circumstances.”

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a moderate who was a member of the original “Gang” and a close friend of Nelson’s from their time on the Senate Armed Services Committee, got an invite, as has Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Nelson’s energy compromise group colleague.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-ME

That must have been a misprint. She is no true Republican. She and Snowe have been the Dem’s long-term, cheap voter-hookers for years, walking the streets of the Senate, ready to drop political dress at the drop of a hat. And their pimp is McCain.

But than again, I expect nothing better from party traitors looking to dig their way into Crap Sandwich Two and digesting what they can for themselves and their liberal supporters.

“We need to focus this on getting people back to work quickly,” Nelson said.

The best way for that to happen would be for Nelson and all of his Demitburo criminals to immediately resign and promise to stay 3,000 miles away from DC for the next 3,000 bleems.

As for “infrastructure”, that is just code for laying millions on adding the brightest and shiniest toys to a government or campaign contributor’s building. For anyone who has ever driven in DC itself, it is not called the Pothole Capital for nothing. You would think after about 50 years of this “infrastructure” spending would have had those potholes filled years ago. Then again, we are crossing a) federal spending and oversight with b) the DC city government. Incompetence on the level of the Obama Cabinet.

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